


The Lucky Ones

by Anonymous



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Not A Fix-It, Post-Endgame, Time Travel, the joke about it being the worst timeline only serious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 07:11:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18734158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “Well. This is new.” Bruce remarked, looking at the three versions of himself standing in the plaza of the Avengers’ compound.A story about possibilities, love, and loss.





	The Lucky Ones

“Well. This is new.” Bruce remarked, looking at the three versions of himself standing in the plaza of the Avengers’ compound. They were younger, clearly, and frightened. Bruce had gotten past that, now. He was semi-retired, the original six were a mix of dead and gone. The fact that he was still here was a fluke of probability that would eventually right itself. Plus, he actually had some experience with time travel. 

“H-H-Hulk?!” squeaked the youngest, gaunt, flighty, already half-panicked. This must have been the earliest days of his association with a personified id. His eyes were bright green as he slid into the grass, shuddering. 

“Shh, calm down. Sun's getting real low, sun's going down.” soothed one of the others, which meant he’d been through Ultron, at least. Judging by the gray of his hair and the fact he was actually smiling though, Bruce put him closer to Ragnarok. Odd, that the end of a world had given him some peace. 

“This place is one of Tony’s, right? I recognize the design.” said the final time traveler, and Bruce remembered suddenly when he had last worn that shirt. Early Avengers, before the Accords, before the fighting. Back when the team was something closer to a healthy family. 

All of them inspired a nostalgia, but Bruce tried not to linger on it. They would probably have disastrous effects if they stayed here too long, one of the few things all time travel, fictional and real, seemed to agree upon, destructiveness. Luckily, since it was himself, he had some idea of what to say to get them to listen. 

“It’s 2023. You’re somewhere safe, no one will be experimenting, and I have 99% confidence getting you back to your own times will be relatively easy and painless. You can call me Hulk if that’s easier, but I’m not shrinking down. I don’t do that anymore.” Youngest Bruce’s eyes shot open, hazel now. 

“So this, this is my future.” he asked, horrified. Bruce resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Deserved as it may be, the angst was awkward to look back upon. 

“A future. Not necessarily yours. The sorcerer is better at explaining this.” he said. 

“The sorcerer?” said two of the Bruces. 

“Strange?” asked the one of Ragnarok, definitively, since he hadn’t known about Strange before Thor swooped him up. 

“That’s the one. I guess we should stay out here, just in case. Everything’s reenforced, but I’m betting his first instinct still is to run. He can get to the woods easier without doors in the way.” he remarked, pulled his phone out of his pocket. If Tony were still around, it would probably be specially designed and appropriately sized. As it was, he had an AI do a lot of the work for him. 

“FRIDAY, send a the following text message to Dr. Strange. ‘Please come to Avengers compound, an incident of interest. Not currently dangerous. Bring the eye. Thank you.’ End message and send.”

“Sent, Dr. Banner.” FRIDAY chirped, and Bruce turned his attention back to himself.

“I thought Dr. Stephan Strange was a surgeon.” mused plum shirt Bruce, looking remarkably calm. 2/3 of his past selves were weathering this was surprising ease. Even youngest Bruce, who was most certainly freaking out, was still in his non-green state, humming something under his breath and rocking slowly. 

“He was. Things change. I can’t tell you much about the future, you know.” Both Ragnarok and plum shirt Bruce nodded their affirmatives. 

“We can talk about the past though. I’ve already lived through it. Youngest Bruce, you’re in Brazil right now, yea?”

“Uruguay. I have a pet cat.” he managed to gasp out, breath still short, but his eyes were back to brown. “I was waiting for Betty.”

“She came with you?” All three of them asked, amazed by the thought. Betty was a lifetime ago, but she had never loved Bruce enough to give up everything. Their shock seemed to confuse youngest Bruce more than anything. 

“Of course. We, we were going to get married before the accident. Maybe we still will, if we can find a holy person who would wed monsters. Er, gamma mutants.” he added, as if a voice had snapped at him for calling himself a monster. 

“Your Betty is a gamma mutant?” asked Ragnarok, eyes wide.

“She was there, when it happened. I pushed the kid out of the way and she ran to me. We should have died.” he said, almost wistfully, and oof, it was never good to remember that feeling. Plum shirt looked uneasy as well.

“She can control it, more than I can. Enough that Ross didn’t know she’d been affected. I didn’t know until she rescued me. She gave me a plane ticket and a phone and told me to wait. So I am.”

“That’s not what happened with me.” said plum shirt.

“Nor I.” said Ragnarok. 

“Seems you all are from different timelines, not just different points on the same. Makes spoilers less of a hazard, at least.” Bruce said, although it did leave him curious. 

“What happened with you?” asked youngest Bruce, because they were the same person, or at least, the same sort of person. The play with radiation and get Hulked type. 

“Betty and I did date, before the accident. After it wasn’t really feasible, with Ross hunting me down. Plus, Harlem. I ran, for years and years, until SHIELD took an interest. They said they just wanted Banner, but Tony made it clear that wasn’t entirely true. He’s always been good at exposing their bullshit. After the Battle of New York, I went to Candyland.” he said, smiling softly. Ragnarok and Bruce laughed, remembering. With Bruce, it ached. 

“It’s been about a year since then. The team and I get along, even Widow. Similar taste in tea, wouldn’t you know? Honestly, it’s shakier between the Other Guy and Thor. Doesn’t help that Loki keeps popping up. Not actually evil, turns out, but they aren’t exactly a hero either. Very capricious. But overall, things are good. Even though Tony is insatiable.” he murmured that last part, embarrassed, more than anything else. 

“Tony and I? That’s uh, that’s not something I’ve ever considered. Even if he and Rhodey weren’t married. We’re science bros, of course.” Ragnarok said, which amused plum shirt and Bruce. He has a similar sentiment, but with Pepper. 

“The accident, on the run, Battle of New York, and then...things I probably shouldn’t discuss, since our timelines are fairly similar.” Ragnarok said, solemnly. “Long story short, I was in space for a while, and Thor rescued me. For somewhat selfish reasons, but we’ve always gotten along. He’s the one who sung the lullaby, when the Other Guy wasn’t wanted.”

“Not Nat?” Bruce asked, speaking up for the first time in an age.

“Widow? No, we’ve never been close. She’s got this capacity for cruelty and I don’t like being lied to. Thor doesn’t do lies. Even if he tried, he’s awful at it. Falling in love with him was the best part of a horrible situation. One I think you know.” said Ragnarok, his gaze drifting to the scarred skin the Gauntlet left behind. 

“Are you with Widow?” asked plum shirt, not emotionally bent in either direction. 

“No. No, I don’t have much of anyone, anymore." he sighed, and looked over these people, these slices of what was or could be, and though it was an ill-advised, likely pointless endeavor, he said more. "Time, it will never be kind to us. So a word to the wise. Don’t run away. I know you want to, that you’re terrified you’ll hurt the people you love. That you’re already pushing your luck, being happy. But it’s not true. Being miserable doesn’t help and it doesn’t save anyone. God, I wish it did.” he said, his voice cracking like a tectonic plate, like a wall beneath Hulk’s fist.

“We all do, Dr. Banner.” said Strange solemnly, having emerged from a portal, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I imagine you are the incident. Delayed affect-effect, easy to rectify. We should consider ourselves lucky it only affected you, Dr. Banner.” he said, and ushered the other Bruces back to the New York sanctum, leaving him once again alone. 

“That’s me. The lucky one.” 


End file.
